The Word's in History

St. John’s gospel says the word was from the beginning, whether that was about fourteen billion years ago according to current scientific consensus or about six thousand years ago according to some scripture. However we date it, the word of affirmation, acceptance, forgiveness, and possibility has sounded and has echoed throughout creation and history. That word will never go away, whether a sentient being is here to experience it or not. It is a fact we humans, I know, have experienced, be we Aborigines, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists, or secularists. I’ve asked them, “Have you experienced goodness, acceptance, forgiveness, and possibility?” They have answered, “Yes, untold times.” I’ve asked, “Is it a life-changing word?” They’ve answered, “Yes, every time I’ve really heard it.” ~jpc

That’s very good to know. Namaste.

image http://tinyurl.com/2swb3f

No Fence

The moralist has fenced in the truth, calling his truth the truth. The moralist pretends those outside her fence are living half-truth, if not the lie. My truth vs. your truth creates division, even war. Better we affirm that your truth and my truth are facets of the one truth that only can unite us. Ultimately, truth knocks down fences and unites us all on its open range. ~jpc

“De fence” is an illusion. Namaste.

image: photo by Sven Philipp www.svenphilipp.com/photos/places.htm

Earthiness

Our earthiness gives us our name (humus ... human), and the creation-centered tradition embraces our simple, humble earthiness and sensuality as the most appropriate placeto experience and express our spirituality. Body and soul are not at odds. Matter (mater/mother) and spirit are not opposed. ~Theme 3 www.originallyblessed.org 2/15/08, via Randy Williams

Of the earth earthy we are one with the earth that is at one with all creation wherein we experience and express our spirituality. ~jpc

O to be deeply human. Namaste.

note: “The Story of Stuff,” with Annie Leonard www.storyofstuff.com (must-see visual story of how we relate to the earth community, via Pam Bergdall)

image: nourishblogzine.wordpress.com/.../

The Numinous

[S]uppose that you were told simply “There is a might spirit in the room,” and believed it. Your feelings would ... be ... less the mere fear of danger: but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking.... This feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites it as the Numinous. ~C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p. 5

When’s the last time you felt such profound disturbance by spirit presence? Lewis, quoting Otto, calls this a feeling of awe. ~jpc

Life is wonderful the way it is. Namaste.

image: Robilee Frederick, "Numinous II," 2003 http://www.bquayartgallery.com/archive/frederick2005.html

Eternal Life

“Emptiness” mean[s] the ... transparency of each moment.... Didn’t even Wittgenstein ... say: “if we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present”? In other words, not something that goes on in time forever but a moment without time at all. ~Ken Wilber, The Integral Vision, pp. 153-54, via Joseph Slicker

Eternal life just is, now. When we are given to see through to what is, sometimes we get it and all is transformed. ~jpc

That they might have eternal life. Namaste.

image: “awestruck by the beauty of it all” by seawallrunner www.flickr.com/photos/seawallrunner/70764894/

Sunday Dialogue XCII

Journer: What has awed you lately?

Nez: Reading* that “Once a second somewhere in the universe a star explodes with the brilliance of an entire galaxy.”

Journer: What’s so awesome about that?

Nez: 86,400 stars are exploding brilliantly each day of your life, Journer, and how many days do you waddle around in an oblivious stupor?

______
* National Geographic, p. 80, 3/07

image: NGC6751 star, in the constellation Aquila, exploded less than 5000 years ago fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect20/A5a.html

"Radical Equality"

As 20th century born, I am not better,
As a male, I am not better,
As the last child of my family, I am not better,
As a small town boy, I am not better,
As an educated person, I am not better,
As a Virginian, I am not better,
As a Southerner, I am not better,
As an American, I am not better,
As a Westerner, I am not better,
As a Caucasian, I am not better,
As a Christian, I am not better,
As a rich man, I am not better,
As a human, I am not better,
As an earthling, I am not better,
As a creature of our universe,
I am not better than

any other part of creation . . .

for we’re all very good.

~jpc, adapted from Motivation for the Great Work: Forty Meaty Meditations of the Secular-Religious, p. 163

Namaste.

______

image: Fred Lanphear designed the Serenity Garden by the Sea at Litibu, Mexico, at Salvatore Caruso’s casa. Over the last three years, Fred and Nancy, his wife, helped create the garden inspired by the spirit of Sheryl Caruso.

Three Strange Angels

… Oh for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm.

No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them.

~D.H. Lawrence, from “Song of a Man Who Has Come Through,” Complete Works ... p. 250

One reading: We have aspirations, meditate on ideal responses, and then … the Unexpected demands we move out and go to Timbuktu. What to do? ~jpc

“Admit them, admit them.” Namaste.

______

image: "doce quimera" by catharine http://www.flickr.com/photos/cathcaliman/2262868776/

Moon over Greensboro

______

Lunar eclipse, 2/20/08, from Greensboro, NC (credit: Nelson Kepley/News & Record)

Thy Kingdom

“Thy kingdom” is always at hand, “inside you and . . . outside you” (Thomas 3:4). Jesus knew his “Father” as ever-present spirit – the reality and mandate of “Thy kingdom come on earth. . . .” Jesus did not teach a belief system, as his tradition did before him and his followers have done after him. He just bore witness to the “lo here” and “lo there” spirit in this moment, in this place, enfleshed now. Spirit, inside what is and outside what is, is always saving us to care for the earth community, especially and urgently. ~jpc

Thy kingdom is on earth now. Thy kingdom come on earth now. Namaste.

image: "Blessed State" www.wizardnet.com/musgrave/blessed.html

Creating the Future

[S]ooner or later a point has to come when we realize that . . . our spiritual practice is no longer merely about trying to have more spiritual experiences; it is about acting upon what has been revealed to us in the experiences we have already had. That is when our own awakening becomes the limitless foundation that empowers us to take responsibility for creating the future—which is the whole point of evolutionary enlightenment. ~Andrew Cohen, from Quote of the Week, 2/11/08

Creating the future is our great work. If we are not more enlightened by watching the “Six Degrees”* documentary, we will not evolve. ~jpc

True enlightenment reinvents humanity. Namaste.

* http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/sixdegrees/

image: iceberg melts in Kulusuk, Greenland, near the Arctic circle. Photo: John McConnico/AP

Bow to All We See

If problems cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created them [Einstein], I suggest we contemplatives, scientists, writers, artists, teachers, activists, earth-lovers, transcend petty discomfiture, acclimatize to the new-to-physics, ancient, intuitive way of sensing things and bring a reverence for the unseen to bear on how we behave toward the seen. ~David James Duncan, “Assailed Improvisations in the Key of Cosmology” (#5)

A well-said mouthful. More simply said, may we with reverence bow to all we see, saying “Namaste.”

image: granddaughter Lyndon (4 mos.) contemplating the Atlantic

Three Profound Reasons

. . . commune with spirit

. . . intercommune with creation

. . . give thanks for being

A reader of the daily reflections wrote me recently to say that I surely spend a lot of reflections on “spirit at the heart of creation,” and asked me why. I told her that, as the banner says, these Journey Reflection(s) emphasize “commune with spirit, intercommune with creation, give thanks for being.” I also said we humans are not adept at these three profound reasons for living. Daily we need to practice bowing to spirit, all others, and the fact of our own being. She wrote back and thanked me and said to keep it up. ~jpc

And thanks to all who view these reflections with us each day. Namaste.

Sunday Dialogue XCI

Journer: Are you religious or spiritual?

Nez: My student* said, “That was the end of my religion period.”

Journer: So you are spiritual?

Nez: As much as any piece of creation.

______

* Jack Crabb character in “Little Big Man” movie

image http://tinyurl.com/29qjob

From Stardust to Stardust

Last week we again celebrated Mardi Gras at our church in Iowa, with more people than at Christmas or Easter services. We do not attempt to immerse ourselves in the pursuit of pleasure. Rather, we dance in the knowledge that we are made from stardust and to stardust we will return. We embrace life as it really is . . . the revelry and the sorrow, the joy and the suffering. It is a time to dance in faith, to sing for joy, and let the Holy Spirit inspire the body we have brought to the party! ~Larry Loeppke, from EarthRise reflection, 2/12/08

People respond to events that help them celebrate the way life is, whether it be birth, weddings, or last rites. Best we make any religious service a celebration of the profound journey that touches our hearts and souls. ~jpc

Let us celebrate our great journey. Namaste.

image www.lutheranchurchphiladelphia.org/calendar.php

Universe Home

Home means a lot to moralists, but the mystic is society’s alien and is not allowed to have a home smaller than the universe, and any time he tries to settle for less, to settle down, and to set up fences, God appears as the moving whirlwind. ~William Irwin Thompson, The American Replacement of Nature, p. 74

Home is nowhere. Home is everywhere. We are always centered, always home, right here and now, eternally. ~jpc

Humbled to be kept in our universe home by the whirlwind. Namaste.

image: "Whirlwind" by Carlyn Massey http://www.carlynmassey.com/

"Australian Apology to Aborigines"

(read article) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7241965.stm

(video via George Holcombe ) http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/02/12/riley.aus.aborigines.apology.sevennetwork

Auntie Mamie King from Murrin Bridge was one of those [Australian Aborigines] who was taken from her family as a young woman. She was born “on the land” before the reserves were in place and went through that whole terrifying process. She was taken to “school” in Cootamundra and was trained to be a domestic worker. After many years, she made her way back to her family and community. She was one of the last living Nygampa speakers and played an instrumental role in helping younger generations appreciate their language and heritage. She passed in the early 90’s. This is a seriously major step for a federal government. ~Wayne Nelson e-mail, 2/13/08

Having worked with Australian Aborigines, our family heartily welcomes these formal apologies and await concrete help to these people that have been promised by PM Kevin Rudd. ~jpc

Romantic Love

Do you think romantic love is a good thing? Do you think it’s good to express all manner of affection with your beloved – if you’re old enough? Do you give thanks for romantic love and celebrate it?

Go ahead, be romantic for at least a day a year. Namaste.

image: Marion Cotillard and Russell Crowe in “A Good Year,” a romantic movie we saw twice.

"Reinventing Date Night for Long-Married Couples"

Article in New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope, 2/12/08 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/health/12well.html?em&ex=1203051600&en=e65a58d963141c58&ei=5087%0A

Traditional View

[N]o anthropocentric view does justice to the fullness of God’s glory in and through the creation of the whole cosmos that was not created simply for human use. ~John Coleman, co-editor of Globalization and Catholic Social Thought, p. 20, via Randy Williams

This statement not only honors “the fullness of God’s glory,” but also the Christian tradition’s original understanding of the cosmos via St. Paul, for example, the earliest New Testament writer, who of course borrowed heavily from Jesus. ~jpc

Best we get back to our roots. Namaste.

image: Entropic Nature of the Cosmos http://tinyurl.com/2lztnu (strange beauty)

"The Walkability Revival"

"The Walkability Revival," Alan Ehrenhalt

Will more people who can afford suburban privacy be attracted to the noise and bustle of the urban street? . . . [U]rban walkability is finally close to the tipping point: high energy costs, reduced crime, aging baby boomers, the evolving preferences of Generations Y and Z. All of these contain a measure of truth.

http://www.governing.com/articles/0802assess.htm via JPC II

Good Day

O Grandfather. . . . It is a good day to die! Thank You for making me a Human Bein’! . . . Thank You for my victories, and for my defeats! Thank You for my vision, and the blindness in which I saw further! ~Old Lodge Skins character in “Little Big Man” (1970)

It’s a good day to die – just as it’s a good day to live – because it’s always a good day, whether we believe it, say “yes” to it, act like it. ~jpc

O to believe it and say “Thank You.” Namaste.

image: "After the Storm," Webster County (L.J. Foster, Marshfield, MO)

Beyond-Language

When a superb reasoner like Teilhard says that “the divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us,” he has not left his sanity behind: only his reason. He is exposing matter to spirit. He’s using Beyond-Language to do it. ~David James Duncan, “Assailed Improvisations in the Key of Cosmology” (#6)

There is so much I know and cannot articulate with language, and I’ve hardly begun to perceive and put to language a zillionth of 1 percent of reality. I don’t even understand my infinitesimal self being exposed to spirit, that is absolutely “in but not of” matter-reality. ~jpc

Assailed, penetrated, and molded by truly Beyond-Language spirit. Namaste.

image: one sheet of paper art entries for a contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC, via Susan Fertig

Sunday Dialogue XC

Journer: What do you think about Jesus?

Nez: My student* said Jesus demonstrates “a blessing theology, . . . blessings . . . for all.”

Journer: Is that all I need to know?

Nez: Quite enough. Knowing you and creation are blessed will change your life.
______
* Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 124-25

image http://tinyurl.com/2p42ph

"Meditation"

The chime rings
The candle, incense, the breathing
The body quiets
Can’t hear, but I am there

The chime rings
Three times: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha
Falling into Silence
Deepening Silence

……………………

The chime rings
A knee pops, my foot’s asleep
In the moment
Peace

~Koshin

Namaste

image: "In the Zone" www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/medart.htm

note: With her family and friends, we celebrate the completed life of Virginia Pierce this day: “Grace shall be. . . . All is well! All is well!”

That Which Is

“[T]he unchangeable was to be preferred to the changeable.”...[W]ith the flash of one trembling glance [I could see] That Which Is. And then I saw.... ~The Confessions of St. Augustine (Seventh Book)

Journers throughout the ages have been grasping after that inner poetry that matches their experiences of that power at the heart of their journeys. ~jpc

That Which Is, unchangeable. Namaste.

image: photo by bocavermelha-l.b., “simultaneousness,” egrets from Bali http://www.flickr.com/photos/bocavermelha/387901255/

In the Things Themselves

He [Jesus] intends that we should see what he sees, there, in the things themselves. . . . The sacred has come to dwell in the common and ordinary in the ongoing and repetitious acts of living. ~Robert Funk, Just Call Me Bob, p. 132

Does that mean waking up, seeing a loved one, sending an e-mail, working with a team, gardening, enacting one’s vocational strategy, voting, going to sleep? ~jpc

Sometimes seeing what we’re looking at is deeply meaningful. Namaste.

image: “Screech Owl Sleeping” by Dan Kaiser http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhkaiser/386543362/

Teach Us

. . . Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in [Thy] will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated.

And let my cry come unto Thee.

~T. S. Eliott, “Ash-Wednesday” (VI), Collected Poems…

O to be still among the rocks and reflect upon reunion. Namaste.

image: (Grand Canyon) http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestrated1/387974445/

"Go Snake Eyes . . . Like This!"

The thoughts, words and deeds of men like Einstein, Schumacher, and Teilhard make me wonder what would happen if we would-be problem-solvers focussed less exclusively on the problems coming at us. . . . What if our primary focus became the level of consciousness with which we greet the dawn, the day, our every breath, our burning, and then we turned to face the problems? ~David James Duncan, “Assailed Improvisations in the Key of Cosmology” (#4)

In “Little Big Man,” Jack’s (Dustin Hoffman in movie image) sister shows him how to go snake eyes and hit his target when he draws and shoots. We in the USA are going bonkers listening to all the problems and how to solve them in this Presidential campaign. Best we change our primary focus. ~jpc

Let us turn to face the problems with a new consciousness. Namaste.

No Place Like Home

This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. . . . [T]here’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment. ~Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, via www.writersalmanac.publicradio.org 1/29/08

I experienced that homing sentiment again driving north on Hwy 52 toward the Blue Ridge. I know whereof you speak, Edward. My mountain, in heart and mind. ~jpc

And sometimes home is where I am right now. Namaste.

image: Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

note: With his family and friends, we celebrate the completed life of Fred McGuire this day: “Grace shall be. . . . All is well! All is well!”

Sunday Dialogue LXXXIX

Journer: How do you know when you’ve got it together?

Nez: My student* said, “I’m glad I’m Jung and not a Jungian.”

Journer: What’s that, a joke? What’s it got to do with me?

Nez: Seriously, do you delight in not having to copy anyone else but your own unique and unrepeatable self?

______
* Carl Jung, quoted by Marlan Stanton in Tradition and Innovation in Psychoanalytic Ed., p.256,via Herman Greene

image: photographer self-portrait in a mirror, c. 1908 historicphotoarchive.com/caps2/00197.html

More Spiritual

For too many of us, the spiritual path is only about the drama of the separate self – our personal hopes and fears, highs and lows, triumphs and failures. . . . [S]ooner or later, we have to realize that that’s simply not the point . . . from an impersonal, evolutionary perspective. ~Andrew Cohen, from Quote of the Week, 1/21/08

My spiritual path is hardly about me, in the first instance, but about all that is, was, and ever shall be. Our prayers are mostly too small. ~jpc

We would be more spiritual. Namaste.

image: from a Middle East and N. African blog on religion and society tharwacommunity.typepad.com/.../index.html

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

The bottom line for each one of us is evaluating what we truly need. In the reduce-reuse-recycle triangle, “reduce” is number one. We can start by reducing the impact of our homes, our businesses, our travel, and our investments. Thomas Berry’s work is a great context for the actions that may follow. Think universally. Act locally. ~JPC II

My son’s words are backed up by a lot of action. He has spurred our family and many communities on to greater care for the earth. And he was the one who first put a Thomas Berry book into my hands, Befriending the Earth. ~jpc

The time has come for simple, mindful living. Namaste.

image: JPC II as he bikes to work.